Prime Existence
by Kalina3
Summary: A modern company has developed the technology to travel through time by parallel universes. After a power outage, the machines malfunction and send the staff members to the wrong universe, Middle-Earth. Based on Timeline.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I own nothing involved with Timeline or Lord of the Rings. That all belongs to the two geniuses, Chrichton and Tolkien.  
  
"How could we possibly lose 3 men in there?!" Doniger screamed.  
  
"It's not like it's hard to get killed in the middle ages," Gordon said sarcastically. "Well, why aren't we going any place else?! We program a ceramic to go to Vesuvius it works. One for Gettysburg, it works. Then suddenly after that power outage no matter where we tell it to go, we end up in the fucking Middle Ages?! This isn't good enough, Gordon. Not good enough for me, or this damn company! Now I want it fixed, and I want it fixed now!" he screamed harshly before slamming his fists on the conference table littered with reports and coffee cups.  
  
"You should really lay off the caffeine, Doniger, you know that don't you?" said a woman nonchalantly standing in the doorway. Although she must have heard the conversation that had passed between the two men, she showed no signs of it.  
  
"So wonderful of you to take such care over me, Diane," Doniger said venomously before glaring at Gordon, still seated comfortably as if used to this type of tantrum.  
  
"We can't do anything until we get that man out of there, or until the machine returns."  
  
"Well, we getting your machine back and your man. He'll be here in 5 minutes," Diane said. The two men were shocked at the news that the machine had arrived back 2 hours earlier than what was expected, and let alone, with it's occupant. The three made their way to the laboratories in the back wing of the building where the machine would be arriving.  
  
There was an air of excitement and tension about the scientists preparing the platforms for the return arrival. They were all curious as to the middle ages, and what they were really like. Baretto had been the 4th person to travel with the machines, which technically were not time machines, but accomplished that feat, after the power had been knocked out during a storm. They normally shut down all machines during a thunderstorm, but since someone was due back, it was impossible to turn off the power without leaving them stranded wherever they were. Ever since then, the machines had been sending them to the Middle Ages no matter where they programmed the machines to go. Baretto had been the 4th to go and the 1st to come back alive.  
  
The room suddenly started to fill with light, just as the three entered the observing room. It was about a minute until the slumping form of Baretto was visible and constantly growing larger from the small form that had originally appeared. In order to transport all the genetic information it was necessary to shrink the subject to a subatomic size, so they sat as they waited for the reverse to happen. The doors opened and out dropped an unconscious and barely breathing Baretto. Every breath seemed to be struggled, but that wasn't the thing that interested Doniger, Kramer, and Gordon most. It was the fact that in his hand he loosely clutched a small dagger. At first glance it appeared to be a normal dagger given to all the staff when they were sent back to ages such as that (it had been banned to take any modern objects back into time so as not to alter the path of history), but on the dagger was a thin black fluid, which appeared to be blood, and the blade shone a faint blue. Around the rim of the handle was an inscription that seemed to glow under the bright, fluorescent lights of the lab. The he wore was odd, and did not appear at all to fit with where they had sent him back to, or so they thought. The computer monitors drew their attention away as the quantum computers configured where the machine had been sent. A sudden realization dawned on all of them.  
  
"It's impossible," Doniger said.  
  
"This can't be happening," Gordon added.  
  
"I think it is," Diane said, "We haven't reached the Middle Ages; we've hit Middle-Earth." 


	2. A Proposition

"Evie!" cried a voice with a thick Russian accent. Soon a face emerged from the metal door to match the voice.  
  
"Da?" she answered, "I know. I know. My accent is horrible, but give me some credit."  
  
Which she deserved. Her Russian course in college had not gone to waste after all, as her mother had said it would. She was one of a few of the Americans on the Russian expedition, and the only one who knew any Russian. It served useful, so that she could understand the others on the ship, since most spoke it, but she couldn't speak worth crap. They were all there for their own reasons, but they all had one goal, to explore the ocean floor and what was on it. Nicholas, for instance, was on it for the sea life. Evelyn was on it to keep a promise, a promise she had made to herself a long time ago, to see the thing which captivated her heart and mind, Titanic.  
  
"Still reading that Tolkien are you?"  
  
"Nicholas, you've known me long enough. Of course I am, I would never stop reading it."  
  
"I don't understand how you can read that."  
  
"I could loan you a book."  
  
"Maybe, but you have a phone call right now."  
  
"Thanks." She made her way to the upper deck. There were phones on the lower ones, but it was more than likely her mother, and she'd rather delay that as long as possible. "Hello?" she spoke as she put the receiver up to her ear.  
  
"Hello, Miss Combe. I'm Diane Kramer with ITC. I would like to discuss a proposition with you that I think you will be very interested in."  
  
"Okay."  
  
"When would be a convenient time for you?"  
  
"Right now is fine with me."  
  
"Alright then. I'll be there in an hour." The woman hung up before Evie could explain that she meant to tell her on the phone right now not fly to the ship to tell her right now. There was nothing left in the lab to do, since there was another dive being made that day so, she slowly made her way back to her small cabin and laid on her bed as she read some more of her book. Unfortunately, it didn't seem long before someone was at her door and Chris's head popped in.  
  
"You've got a visitor." They must have sent him down, knowing that he was the only one able to get her to go out of her cabin when she didn't want to do something. She didn't actually want to talk to this woman, but she was from ITC, which was known for funding archeological research, so it might prove rewarding. She followed Chris up to the conference room, on the way she had run into Andre and had tried to talk with him to delay her meeting, but Chris had interfered. He always seemed to do that, but maybe it was because he knew her too well. He knew how she would procrastinate social meetings she didn't want to do, and would face all the scientific problems she didn't want to do head on, and get them over with. They had become good friends after having been assigned as partners for an assignment in college. One of the reasons she chose to go on this expedition was Chris. Evie had never liked meeting new people, so a friendly face on the ship helped her deal with the separation from her family, minus her mother. She could have withstood that just fine  
  
She walked into the conference room to see a woman dressed in the complete opposite as Evelyn. A business suit, high-heels, complete with a briefcase made the woman look like a typical lawyer especially when compared to Evelyn's worn jeans, t-shirt, and wet tennis shoes.  
  
"Hello Miss Combe. I'm Diane Kramer. We spoke on the phone."  
  
"Oh, yes. Hello. What did you want to discuss with me?" Kramer looked to the door, still ajar from when Evelyn had entered, where an eavesdropping Chris was. Evelyn cast a glare towards his direction; he took the hint and left, but not before shutting the door entirely.  
  
"I have to be very careful of who I speak to about this. For years, ITC has been looked on as a normal computer corporation, with the only thing setting it apart from others is it's unusual interest in historical research. Do you know why? It's because we've discovered the quantum computer. Billions of times more powerful than a normal computer, we've used this to be able to go to parallel universes and essentially back through time."  
  
"And you're telling me this because?"  
  
"I know you. You've been the topic of discussion at our latest meetings. We'll send you to see your beloved ship wreck."  
  
"Hey! That ship sinking helped save thousands of lives! You out to pay it at least a little dignity." Diane paid no heed to Evelyn's sudden outburst, and continued on.  
  
".back in all its glory, if you do us a little favor."  
  
"And what is that?"  
  
"First, I need to know that you'll agree."  
  
"I never agree to anything without knowing what I'm doing first."  
  
"You'd be going on another trip first to help out with one of the problems we've been experiencing with the machines."  
  
"And why can't you have one of your staff do this?"  
  
"Because all of the people, but one have not come back to where ever the machines end up, and what we can gather from his condition and possessions, you're the only one who wants something we can bargain with and has enough knowledge about this place."  
  
"And this place is? The bottom of the ocean because I know a lot about that, but then why would you call me? So why is it that you want me over all the other more qualified people around here."  
  
"I hear you have a passion for a certain author's fantasy novels. You sure must know a lot about that other little world after reading those books for so long."  
  
"You're joking. It doesn't exist. It's just a story, a fairy tale. It doesn't exist," she said with the typical confidence of a scientist. She received nothing in response, but a knowing stare. Evelyn just sat there thinking for a while. Trying to think of all the reasons this woman would lie to her, would tell her this. She could think of millions, and they all fought over her attention.  
  
As she sat there confused, she hardly noticed as Diane slid to her across the long table a report and a small dagger. She picked it up and stared at it in wonder. The blade of it glowed a light blue and Evelyn noticed trace amount of a black liquid on the tip. She switched the way she held it from an archeologist examining an artifact to a much more natural grip. She noticed as she held it in the proper way a series of runes or letters seemed to be suddenly engraved into the rim of the handle. She turned her attention to the reports and stared at the information in front of her disbelievingly, yet strongly convinced.  
  
"We leave in an hour. You won't need to bring anything, except maybe those books of yours if you want," with that said Diane Kramer picked up her briefcase and laid a small contract in front of Evelyn before walking out the door.  
  
Evelyn read the contract thoroughly; she had always been mistrustful of lawyers, and signed it. She made sure she copied the engraving on the dagger in the small notebook she carried around with her and slipped it in her pocket. 'I'll have time to translate it later,' she thought. She walked out the door to see an anxious Chris waiting for her.  
  
"So, what was that all about?" he finally asked her when he could bear the curiosity no longer.  
  
"Oh, just another one of those, once in a lifetime opportunities. You know," she said calmly.  
  
"Yeah, I know what you mean," he said as they rounded the corner that would lead to the crew's cabins. 


	3. A Helicopter Ride

The helicopter's blades whirred ferociously while Evelyn waved goodbye to Chris out the window. Not too soon after they had lifted into the air, her need for knowledge got the better of her. "I've got some questions, and you seem to have all the answers."  
  
"I'll answer what I can, meaning what I'm able to because of my knowledge and legal agreements," she clarified, like she always did. She had never been too trusting of the science types. "But if you want to know how it works I've got some reading material," she added as she tossed a large folder onto Evelyn's lap.  
  
"Well, first of all, why me over the much more knowledgeable Tolkien readers? I'm sure they'd love to see Middle Earth," she said rather irritably.  
  
"Because anyone who knew enough about Tolkien's little world as we needed wouldn't want to go there, and you've got an incentive we can use to get your cooperation," she said. "Besides, you're not as well known. We could have a scandal if you were," she added under her breath, but not quite soft enough to avoid the ears of an inquisitive Evelyn, rummaging for any information she could pick up.  
  
"So you're saying I might die on this little favor of yours."  
  
"No, I'm saying you're probably going to die on this little favor of ours."  
  
"Thanks for informing me of this before I signed the contract. Of course, the one catch of the deal is written in all contracts and is not quite uncommon in this situation."  
  
"Do you always have to be such a scientist?"  
  
"Do you always have to be such a lawyer?"  
  
"Yea, my job is my life."  
  
"Well my life is my job." Diane had no response to that, so, knowing that she had won, Evelyn started to read the report before her. It described the experiments that had been done with photons that helped support the theory of parallel universes. It started out by describing the simple experiments with two walls and slits in one wall to allow light in that had been done for the past two hundred years. With one slit, you see one bar of light. Two, was a series of dark and light bars, four or maybe five bars of light, yet if you shined light in four slits, you got two bars. The waves would overlap in some places, making them stronger or blocking each other out. Now, that's a perfectly reasonable answer, if light came in waves, but it doesn't. It consists of particles called photons. We've known that since Einstein, so how do you explain a bunch of photons making patterns? Simple. The photons have some wavelike properties depending on the situation, and interfere with each other creating the patterns. Were scientists absolutely certain that it was the other photons causing the patterns? No. They eliminated the interaction to find out, and the results were even more perplexing. By using modern technology to let light in only one photon at a time, the photons still made the same patterns. Something had to be interfering with them, but what? We couldn't see any cause in our universe, which meant that something must be going on that we can't see. Something in another universe. That proves that there must be other universes, and they sometimes interact with our own.  
  
"Interesting," she said as she closed the folder and handed it back to Kramer. "How much longer until we land?"  
  
"About an hour and a half."  
  
"Good. Maybe I can finally finish some of my book," she said as she opened the book and started reading. She was so engrossed with her book, she barely noticed as Kramer reached for her cell phone and made a whispered conversation. She barely noticed it, but she did notice it. 


	4. Some Useful Information

"Kramer, we have a slight change of plan," Doniger said sharply over the phone.  
  
"Alright, what is it?" Kramer knew better than to revoke the wrath of "Death March Doniger." He had earned the nickname because o his ability to get the job done and to get it done by any means or costs. He would tear through whomever to get what he wanted, and Kramer was only glad he was currently off the dating market.  
  
"We've got a possible big investor." Even though, Doniger had plenty of cash, a hi-tech corporation like ITC was expensive and Doniger was glad to find investors. The plus size of having such a modern company was the fact that there was absolutely no competition if they went public.  
  
"How big?"  
  
"It depends on how much we can sell him in."  
  
"What does he want?"  
  
"A trial of the machines as soon as possible."  
  
"We can't send him back, especially not now."  
  
"Actually it turns out his daughter is a big fan of the Lord of the Rings."  
  
"No, we can't. It's too risky. You of all people know that. It's a big risk sending Combe back let alone some Malibu Barbie."  
  
"We'll send her back with Combe and one of our staff members. We'll talk to Combe later."  
  
"How are we going to convince her to go along?"  
  
"We don't have to if you've done your job and gotten her to sign the contract."  
  
"Yea, she must really love that sunken piece of shit."  
  
"Good, just make sure she won't do anything radical alright? I don't want her to do anything other than to get those three out of there."  
  
"What do you mean, other three?"  
  
"Baretto woke up. He's still pretty bad, but he gave us some information. The other three are prisoners. He put up a fight and managed to get away by calling the machines."  
  
"Alright. We'll be there in an hour and a half."  
  
"Good," with that said they both hung up.  
  
"Looks like our little book worm has her work cut out for her." Kramer said under her breath, thinking that Evelyn was too involved with her book to notice.  
  
"What? I'd say it's a positive. I always wanted to meet Malibu Barbie," she said sarcastically making sure to quote Kramer.  
  
"So you think you'll be able to handle her?"  
  
"I survived eighteen years with my mother. I think I can handle her."  
  
"Anyway, when we get there, you'll be called into a conference. They'll give you a basic idea of what you have to do."  
  
"Rescue three men from prison and keep princess away from harm with the help of a bodyguard who probably knows nothing about Middle-Earth, that shouldn't be too tough."  
  
"After that you'll have a bit of instruction on weapons and such."  
  
"Okay, well I took fencing for about five years when I was younger."  
  
"You took fencing?" Kramer asked with genuine surprise.  
  
"Yea, my mom, the type who married for money and wanted an absolutely perfect family, but drunk all the time, forced my brother to take fencing and me to take ballet."  
  
"So you didn't take fencing you're brother did."  
  
"Haven't you learned not to interrupt? Well, we both hated what we were forced to do and liked the others better so we switched."  
  
"Your brother took ballet."  
  
"Yep, and he still does. It's his job. My father literally had a heart attack when he found out."  
  
"Interesting, but you'll still have to get used to using a sword. After about an hour or so, we'll get you ready to go back."  
  
"Do these people know the Common Speech?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"The language of Middle Earth. You know they don't speak English. There's Elvish, Orcish, Dwarvish, but most speak in the Common Speech. The equivalent of English in there land."  
  
"Oh, well then Malibu Barbie should. I assume she got a recording of phrases." She said, but added much more softly, knowing Doniger was sometimes too quick with investors, "Or at least I hope." 


	5. Doniger

"You can't do this," Gordon said sharply. "I'm not going to let you do this."  
  
"You can't stop me, so I think you're going to have to," Doniger said as his anger rose.  
  
"It's too dangerous. It's too dicey enough as it is sending Combe back and even more so sending Margot Winston."  
  
"We have to. We have no choice."  
  
"No, we do have other choices. You just won't consider them."  
  
"Like what? Sending them back with a normal guard. It won't do. If anything happens to Margot, Winston would kill us. We'd have a huge law suit and we've got enough big problems as it is on our hands."  
  
"It could be an even bigger problem if the path of history is changed. You know parallel universes interact with our own. It could cause major problems in their universe and ours."  
  
"At least it wouldn't be a multimillion dollar lawsuit," Doniger said under his breath.  
  
"What? You're comparing this to a lawsuit! What would happen if something happened to Gomez and those people got hold of those weapons? It could cause damage far more serious than a lawsuit. You can't do this. I won't let you send de Kere back with guns and explosives. We agreed. Nothing out of the time period."  
  
"Fine. I won't give de Kere weapons other than the ones we usually equip them with," he said, but that didn't mean he had given in. He never had before, and this was no exception, especially not to Gordon. 'I'll have to have a word with de Kere,' he thought to himself. With that he left, mumbling something to Gordon about coffee while he planned his meeting with de Kere. As he was walking out, Susan Gomez was walking in. She obviously had something to say, and more than likely it was about Margot Winston.  
  
"If it's about Margot, talk to Doniger. I was against from the start," Gordon said to her before she could vent her frustration at him. She gave a look of defeat. No one wanted to go up against Doniger, and Gordon only did when he had to, but he still hated when he did. She turned around and headed back to the training rooms. Doniger had built several of them since all trips back that were not observers or done with cameras would need some level of knowledge of how to fight in that time period. On her way she noticed Doniger going the wrong way. She had heard him saying something about coffee, but there was a lounge with a coffee machine right next to the conference rooms. Besides, even if he meant that he needed more sleep since they had been working almost non-stop to try and fix the machines and get them ready for the next trip, there were couches in all the lounges everyone used for taking much needed rest. She didn't say anything to Doniger, but stayed further behind and watched as he walked into one of the training rooms where de Kere was practicing.  
  
She thought it odd. De Kere had always been known to be strongly opposed to the rule of taking back nothing modern back. He had always argued with Kramer about it complained to her since they were usually sent on trips together. She wasn't going to say anything to Gordon about this and incur Doniger's fury, but she decided that something wasn't right and had to be dealt with, but she couldn't do it alone. She turned around and headed back to the conference room where she knew Gordon would be.  
  
Gordon went over the reports again and again. Every time it said the same thing, and every time he refused to believe it. He had never believed in fairytale worlds, and he wouldn't start now. He couldn't believe such a magical little place where nothing goes wrong could possible exist. 'This can't be true? It can't be real, can it? Couldn't it be that this is wrong? Couldn't it be that what were doing is wrong? Is it really ok to send people back in time even if it is just a parallel universe in that time?' All these questions kept on going on in his head, but only one statement kept on reappearing.  
  
"Doniger has gone too far," Susan Gomez said standing in the doorway.  
  
"I think so too, and something has to be done about," he replied with the same tone of certainty in his voice.  
  
"Are you sure you can handle him?"  
  
"If there's more than one of us we can. I'll arrange a meeting."  
  
"How are we going to get around him? He owns the company and his one of those most powerful men in the country."  
  
"I know just how. I'm not going to like it, but if he crosses over the line one more time. We might have to do it." 


	6. Arrivals

The black asphalt of the landing pad felt oddly out of place in the middle of the Arizona desert. Soon the constant whirring of the helicopter's blades, which Evelyn had become accustom to, suddenly stopped. A sleek black building seemed to rise out of the taupe sands majestically. She noticed the company's name on the side of the building, ITC. 'So this is it. I'm here.' A sudden feeling of dread plummeted to the bottom of her stomach. She was not at all pleased to be going back to Middle Earth. 'This is for your dream. You promised yourself. You have to prove to mom, but most of all yourself, you can do this.' This quieted some of her fears, but unfortunately some was not all and the larger ones still remained.  
  
"Well, come on. I'm a busy woman. I haven't got all day," Kramer said harshly.  
  
"Then why did you come all the way to a boat off the coast of Greenland just to talk with me?!" She suddenly let all the rage she had been repressing about this woman out.  
  
"Then let me correct myself. You're going to be a busy woman, and you haven't got all day."  
  
"Fine," Evelyn said testily as she stepped out of the already opened door. She clutched her books as winds created by the helicopter blew her long hair about her face. She followed Kramer a short ways down a very long hallway to a small conference room. Evelyn assumed they must have entered through a back door since there was no lobby as far as she could tell. The two men who had sat sleepily in their chairs rose as she walked into the room. She assumed it was not for her, but rather Diane Kramer.  
  
"Hello Ms. Combe. I'm Robert Doniger," said the more tense looking one.  
  
"Hello. I'm Steven Gordon."  
  
"Vedui." She greeted them in Elvish not really because she needed practice, but rather she had come to realize that they were doing something very big sending her there, and that made her feel like she ought to prove they had made the right choice. She hoped they had.  
  
"Pardon?" Doniger said.  
  
"It's Elven for Greetings."  
  
"Oh, well that's good that you know how to speak that," he replied, "If you would actually use it," he said to himself. The sleep deprivation must have been getting to him because usually if Doniger didn't want you to hear something you wouldn't, but he slipped up. It was a subtle bit too loud, but just loud enough for Evelyn to catch it.  
  
"Well, it looks like I am putting it to good use." Voices could be heard down the hall.  
  
"I told you I didn't want that one! I wanted the other one. Now, please be a dear and go get me it. Now!" Someone came up behind Evelyn and gave a startled gasp. She didn't know if it was because of the even more stark contrast between her and Evelyn than with Kramer as far as dress goes, or if it was because someone was blocking her way. She appeared to not be used to that.  
  
"Alright, I'm here. Daddy couldn't make it, but he'll be here while I'm away in this whole little world of yours. I hope the guys are as cute as they are in the movie," she said, totally oblivious to the ludicrousness of her statement. Evelyn couldn't help, but laugh. She tried to cover it up, but it was just too much and giggle escaped her lips.  
  
"What so funny?"  
  
"I hate to tell you this, but I doubt that the guys will be very interested in you. I mean you can't even speak their language. I know the words, but no one knows how those words are exactly pronounced so my accent is bad. I've spent my whole life since I was twelve on these books and I'll probably get laughed at by them because my pronunciation is awful."  
  
"So what? I can speak Spanish or French or whatever," she said impatiently, but Evelyn caught her. She had noticed it the first time, but was just making sure that it wasn't just covering up nerves about the trip. She didn't quite feel at ease with the way she was speaking and acting.  
  
"You can drop the act."  
  
"What act?"  
  
"The one you're doing right now. Just because you're nervous because you think that we'll assume you're some little rich girl from California doesn't mean you have to act like it. So what if you're insecure about yourself and whether you want to be here or if your reasons for going are legitimate. Maybe I am judging you and maybe I already have, but even so you should still be yourself. It's better than acting like some Malibu Barbie bitch who's oblivious to the world." Kramer smirked when she heard the phrase "Malibu Barbie." Evelyn was fed up with these people. She had dealt with Kramer all day and now Doniger. She didn't want to judge Gordon just because of his boss, so she couldn't tell if he was an ass or not. She wasn't a people person, and she was not going to put up with anymore crap from anyone. She was going to lay down that law with her right now.  
  
They all stared at her in disbelief, especially "Malibu Barbie." Evelyn could tell by the look on her face that she had been right.  
  
"I'm Margot Winston," she said quietly.  
  
"Evelyn Combe, but just call me Evie. I'm not used to being called Evelyn," she said nonchalantly, but with a hint of friendliness to it. She had won, and she had figured she wouldn't have to deal with Margot again, hopefully. 


	7. The Trip

"Here," Gomez said, "You'll need to wear these clothes and luckily your hair is about the right length. You'll also have to wear contacts. We got your latest prescription from about 3 months ago. Hopefully that will be strong enough since you won't be able to wear glasses, especially not those." She motioned to the thick plastic frame. "Ms. Winston. You'll need this." She tossed a wig to Margot.  
  
"Do I have to wear it?" Margot asked meekly  
  
"Not unless you want to cut your hair and go as a guy," Evelyn said before Gomez had a chance to. They had been in countless meetings and training sessions for the past few hours and Evelyn was glad that they were finally going, despite her uneasiness about it. Gomez was about to change into her costume, but Evelyn stopped her. "Where in Middle-Earth are we going to end up? That affects how we need to dress you know."  
  
"We're not exactly sure where in Middle-Earth the machines end up. The one person who might be able to tell us is hooked up to a respirator, and what we did get out of him was hard to get."  
  
"Great. Just great."  
  
"I think it's kind of neat," Margot said, surprising both Evelyn and Gomez. She hadn't talked all morning since Evelyn had confronted her. "Excitement. Adventure."  
  
"The possibility of getting killed," she said under her breath, but not unnoticed.  
  
"You took on this mission and you're afraid of dying?" Gomez said unbelievingly.  
  
"I'm not afraid of dying. I'm afraid of not keeping my promises." No one had the guts to shake Evelyn out of her daze by asking her what she meant, so they all started to get ready.  
  
Evelyn had saved the worst for last, the contacts. She had gotten some for work since it was sometimes easier, but she still didn't like them or wear them often. She wore them so rarely that all of her friends on the crew made a point of teasing her when she did wear them, which only added to the reasons for wearing them less. Now for the worst part, putting them in. She hated wearing them, but she hated putting them in and taking them out more.  
  
"Okay. I can do this," she said in front of one of the mirrors in the small locker room.  
  
"Worried about the trip?" Gomez asked.  
  
"No, rather about putting my contacts in." Gomez had no response to that other than a shake of her head and a small laugh.  
  
  
  
"It's a rather simple process really," Gordon said. "You'll be shrunken down to the subatomic level and transported through the quantum foam and into this world. Although technically speaking it would be the parallel universe self that will be doing this, but if that self is killed it call back the machines and you're dead, so try not to think of it that way." Evelyn understood what he was saying completely. Unfortunately the same could not be said about Margot.  
  
The next part he said more to Evelyn. "We need you to find three of our men who we believe are still alive there and bring them back. They were sent with a machine to help track data in the quantum foam and maybe see why we are getting sent back to Middle-Earth. We need the machine, but unfortunately the only people who know where it is are those three. You'll have exactly 36 hours back there before the machines automatically return and you'll be stuck there."  
  
"Alright, Alright," Doniger said impatiently. "Are the machines ready yet?"  
  
"Doniger just have patience. We don't want anything to go wrong, do we?"  
  
"Fine," he said abruptly.  
  
"You'll have to be extra careful back there. You'll have Gomez and de Kere as your guides, but still be cautious. Ms. Combe, we're relying on you. Be careful." With that said, Gordon and Doniger went through the door that would lead to the observatory room.  
  
The entire room that they were left in was covered in water shields, thick glass tanks filled to the brim with water. De Kere and Gomez gave them instructions on where and how to put in the small ceramic into the machine. Normally the ceramics would sent you to the destination in which they were programmed, and they helped to set order into the company.  
  
There were three ceramics made, or so it is said, for destinations at a site of mass destruction. One was programmed for Pompeii at the time of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Another was set for Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped, and a last one was programmed for Chernobyl when the nuclear power plant exploded. If you caused problems you could be sent to one of these locations on your next trip since ceramics were hard to tell apart from one another. No one knew if this was a myth or truth, but no one wanted to find out. Now it was a bit more relaxed and tense. If the machines weren't fixed the company would fail, but if they were there were fixed there was the danger of upsetting the boss and getting sent to one of the locations.  
  
All of the scientists watched anxiously, and that included Evelyn. She watched as the doors closed around her automatically. A recorded voice came on, "Stand still-eyes open-deep breath-hold it.Now!" A circular rim descended quickly from the top of the machine to the bottom. There was a click and then bright flashes of light. The machines across the room seemed to be getting larger and farther away from her. The rubber floor had a pattern of circles, which soon rose above her like tall black plateaus with steep cliffs. All the while there was blinding flashes of light, and then there was nothing but darkness. 


	8. 36:00:00

"What happened?" one of the scientists asked.  
  
"What's going on?" Doniger asked one of them.  
  
"Well, the machines can give us a small range of where they end up, such as the Shire or Mordor, but in order to understand the greater area, such as all of Middle-Earth, of the location we have to wait until they come back."  
  
"I know that. I run this whole damn company remember." He didn't mean to be that harsh with him, but if he just killed Charles Winston's kid, he was in deep shit.  
  
"Well, we were able to compare the three trips by overlapping them in the computer. We did this just to make sure there was not a change in the quantum foam."  
  
"Get to the fucking point!" Doniger wanted to get his death sentence over with, but this damn scientist just wanted to prolong it. Doniger was pissed and he really didn't want to have to deal with Charles Winston in a couple of hours.  
  
"The first two trips ended up at the same spot, but this one didn't."  
  
"Do you know where they are?"  
  
"No, the computer's data is too small to be able to tell."  
  
"Shit."  
  
Evelyn cautiously stepped out of the machine and looked around her. It was unfamiliar since all she had were her own visions of the place, but she tried to figure out where they were. Then it hit her. "Shit."  
  
"What?" Gomez asked her.  
  
"Do you know where we are?" De Kere asked.  
  
"Yea, and we certainly landed in the best place at the best time," she said sarcastically.  
  
"It doesn't look to bad. It looks like it's pretty peaceful other than the soldiers setting up defenses. I mean looks like they'll be something soon, but at least it's not going on right now," Margot stated.  
  
"You're right. It's just the calm before the storm, so we'll have some time. We're at Helm's Deep, and we're in deep shit."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Well the obvious one is that of all the places that are not where you'd want to end up here, this is in the top five."  
  
"Alright, well. We'll do what we can. In the mean time, here are your earpieces. They connect you to headquarters, any of us, and translate what the people are saying here. Unfortunately they won't translate what you want to say. You can turn them off by pressing the button right here," she said as she pushed the button. She handed Margot and Evelyn theirs, and they put them in.  
  
"We have a problem." Evelyn heard Doniger's sharp voice in her ear. "You've been sent to a different area. You're south and a bit east of where the other three probably are."  
  
"Do you know if their location was near a forest?" Evelyn asked.  
  
"Why would you need to know that?" de Kere asked.  
  
"Not exactly, but we believe from the data that they were probably in the near a large forest. We can get some data about the landscape, but usually not buildings unless they are major."  
  
"Were they also close to a large tower?"  
  
"Yes, they were very close to one."  
  
"Isengard."  
  
"What?"  
  
"That's where they were. Isengard. We're at Helm's Deep right now, and we're in for a fight."  
  
"Alright then." She could hear the click as he turned off the microphone he had been using.  
  
They could do nothing in the mean time, but sit and watch as everyone else prepared for a battle. They knew that there was an incoming army and it would be no use to try and get out. It wasn't long until they could see that the battle was now started. Evelyn started to get up and draw her sword. She had been fighting with herself on what to do, but she had now decided.  
  
"What the hell are you doing?" de Kere asked.  
  
"I always admired E?owyn because she didn't just sit around and do nothing, and I'm not going to do that either," she responded.  
  
"You'll get killed," Gomez said, but it was no use against Evelyn's stubbornness. Evelyn knew better than to go out their in fight, but she was tired of sitting around and watching. She would much rather die with them than live and watch them die. Gomez gave in and soon did Margot. 'I'll redeem myself. They all think I can't lift a finger, but I'll show them by lifting a sword,' Margot thought to herself. She too knew she'd probably die, but if she died proving to one person she wasn't as bad as she seemed, she'd be happy. De Kere seeing as he was the odd man out started after them. He had the weapons Doniger gave him if anything got out of hand.  
  
It wasn't long before Evelyn and Margot had gotten their baptism of fire and earned some battle scars. Evelyn had a long cut on her abdomen and several smaller ones her arms and legs. Margot had gotten herself a busted lip and a cut going from her ankle to the middle of her thigh. They had been separated from de Kere and Gomez near the beginning and were doing poorly, but quite well for a couple of 21st century girls. Evelyn praised Elbereth for the fencing lessons she had as a girl, and Margot thanked God she was fit from all of the tennis she usually played.  
  
Gomez and de Kere soon appeared, but Gomez made the mistake of taking her eyes away from the battle. Her head was severed from her body and the bloody head still had her mouth open as if she was about to say something. De Kere was distracted and soon earned himself an arrow in the arm. He quickly grabbed a grenade from where he had hidden it and a ceramic. He called his machine and stepped in. He pulled the pin out just as an arrow soared through the slowly closing doors and into de Kere's heart. Soon his arm went limp and dropped the detonated hand grenade.  
  
Bursts of white light flickered in the room followed by an explosion and pieces of shrapnel flying through the air soon joined with broken glass. The tanks surrounding the large room where shattered and water spilled on the floor.  
  
"Fuck," Doniger screamed. Without the tanks, there was no way to get back from Middle-Earth, and their time was slowly ticking down. 


	9. 35:44:00

"What are we going to do?!" Margot cried as something was knocked against her head. She heard a small click as her earpiece was disconnected.  
  
"Drag Gomez over to the side. We need to find that ceramic she had. It's the only way to call back the machines." They dragged what remained of Gomez's body over to the place where they had been hiding, and luckily, with the excitement of battle going on, were unseen. Evelyn began to search the body for pockets, which may have been used to hide the ceramic.  
  
"Found it!" Margot cried. The wig that Gomez had worn was partially separated from her head and allowed the tiny piece of plastic that would take them back home to come into view. It had been held in place by a small piece of scotch tape. Margot carefully tore away the clear tape holding it in place, and gingerly removed the small ticket back home.  
  
The fragments blew away with a small breeze, and along with it, it took their hope. Neither said anything for minutes, which seemed to them more like hours. A small high-pitched beep rang through Evelyn's ears. She started desperately rummaging through the other pockets until her frantic search yielded a small black box. It emitted a high-pitched sound that Evelyn could only hear because of her well-trained ears every 15 minutes Evelyn guessed.  
  
"Radar," she whispered. "Do you know what this means?"  
  
Margot shook her head.  
  
"We have a way home."  
  
************  
  
"Alright. We have a problem. The 6 of our eight water tanks are broken beyond repair, which is exactly how many spare water tanks we have, but the other two are seriously damaged and we're not sure if they could withstand the pressure from the amount of water we need to fill them with. We barely have enough time to refill the tanks before they get back, so they've already started," Gordon said calmly, even though on the inside, he was in a full-blown rage that Doniger would be so careless, and now that need to save his own ass Doniger had always had would be the thing that ruined him.  
  
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Fuck!" Doniger screamed as he pounded his fists on the table in defeat. There was nothing he could do, no order he could give that could fix this. He had dropped the ball, for once in his life, he had dropped the ball, and that damn idiot Gordon, the one who had fought him all the way, would be the one to pick it up. ITC's management looked on in shock and something cousin to horror at Doniger's collapse. The man who had always had what he wanted, always gotten what he wanted, always been rich, successful, powerful, influential, everything, had collapsed before them. It was as if all the glory of Rome and ended in one quick moment, with one small four-letter curse.  
  
"We need to get back to work," Gordon said after a few moments, even he was shocked at Doniger's ruin. The few people who were in the small room silently exited along with Gordon to return to work, leaving Doniger to his demise. Five minutes ago, in Conference Room 5, a man who amounted to something close to a god had fallen.  
  
************  
  
"Okay, here's what we do," Evie said as she and Margot covertly dragged the bodies of two deceased soldiers over to the small hidden alcove they had landed in. From there they could see the battle rage on, but it would take serious concentration from anyone around the area to see the two of them, which was something Evie seriously doubted anyone would do. "We take our swords and cut our hair to about shoulder length, it's the safest way to go since we don't have elf ears. We put on these soldiers clothes and we make our way to Isengard or around there non-stop. I'm not sure if we can make it, we have a little bit less than 36 hours to travel something that might have normally been about a week or two's journey. It doesn't matter that we lost the ceramic though since we wouldn't have time to get back here anyway since the machines come back to where they arrive. I don't know how we'll get back, but going to Isengard is more of a hope than staying here."  
  
"Alright," Margot said as they quickly and with little respect undressed the soldiers, "and Evie."  
  
"Yea," Evie said as she tried as best she could to figure out how to put on the soldier's uniform.  
  
"I'm sorry about earlier, I mean, the way I acted," Evie said with sincerity touching every word.  
  
"Don't worry about it," Evie said with a smile, "You proved yourself out there," she said with a nod toward the battle, "It was only five minutes, but we're alive and that's better than some can say."  
  
"It seemed more like hours."  
  
"I found this off Gomez," she said as she flashed a small metal bracelet with a tiny engraved box in the center. The lid was open to reveal a small LCD monitor that was ticking time backward from 36:00:00. A load resounding boom filled the walls of Helm's Deep. It sent as much horror through the two women as the pounding of Doniger's fists had brought.  
  
************  
  
"Are you sure there's no way to contact them?" Gordon asked the scientist.  
  
"Positive. The only form of communication is through the earpieces and either they were knocked out, turned off, or." the small anxious man in the white lab coat with the ITC logo on it said nervously.  
  
"Or what?"  
  
"Or the people wearing the earpieces, are dead since they work off the wearer's body heat."  
  
"We're fairly sure that at least two of them are still alive though," another scientist, Gordon assumed, said as he turned his chair away from the computer monitor. The man was dressed casually; a polo shirt and jeans, the only thing that identified him as an ITC employee was the ID tag around his neck that read "David Stern." "It's probable that one of the three left is dead."  
  
"Any idea who?" Gordon inquired.  
  
"Not a clue. Just that two of the trackers we slipped in the sword handles are responding. It's possible the sword was discarded since it responds to any slight movement, even one as small as breathing, but there's only a slight chance of that."  
  
"And there's no way to contact them and tell them that they can't come back yet?"  
  
"None."  
  
************  
  
The two girls had cautiously made there way out of Helm's Deep with luck greatly on their side. They crept along the outward flanks of Saruman's army and ran in the direction of the Gap of Rohan, only knowing that they were following the small radar screen they had, and that time was not something they had much of and something they needed a lot of. Steadily and surely, the small timer ticked their time slowly down.  
  
34:14:04  
  
34:14:03  
  
34:14:02  
  
34:14:01  
  
34:13:00 


End file.
